Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Prayer Pointers:
To grow in love of the Lord
For chances to use your gifts
For those who manage investments
“A MAN WENT AWAY FOR A LONG JOURNEY…” In this third end-times parable, Jesus encourages his followers to continue in their work until he returns. The owner gives to three servants funds to manage while he is gone. Each of the servants is given a wondrous sum: even the third has the rough equivalent of a million dollars! And, eventually, the householder comes back.
The parable itself turns on what the third servant says to his master: “you are a hard man.” It is not worth risking anything for someone like this master, who takes for himself the fruits of what others planted, who eats what others have grown. The third servant does not love his master and acts from that lack of love: he buries a sizeable treasure in the ground and lets it wait there until such time as the master returns.
By contrast, the first and second servants “go to work.” They grow what they have been given, they multiply what their gifts can do, and when the master returns, there is joy over what has been accomplished. Let’s not lose sight of what this joy really means: it is expansive, coloring and shaping all of life—it is contagious!
This is the Christian life: before each of us is the question of how we should invest ourselves—the treasure that God has given each of us. If we see God as hard and greedy, taking what we have, then we will assess the risk of investing in him one way. But if we see God as kind and generous, giving us far more than we deserve, then we assess that risk differently.
May your day be grace-filled ~ Pr. Dave Brooks